Release Highlights:
Implemented workarounds for two Adobe Flash bugs by applying libvdpau commit ca9e637c61e80145f0625a590c91429db67d0a40 to the version of libvdpau shipped with the NVIDIA driver.
Fixed an issue which affected the performance of moving windows of VDPAU applications when run in some composite managers.
Added unofficial GLX protocol support (i.e., for GLX indirect rendering) for the GL_ARB_pixel_buffer_object OpenGL extension.
Added support for HDMI 3D Stereo with Quadro Kepler and later GPUs. See the documentation for the "Stereo" X configuration option in the README for details.
Added experimental support for OpenGL threaded optimizations, available through the __GL_THREADED_OPTIMIZATIONS environment variable. For more information, please refer to the "Threaded Optimizations" section in chapter "Specifying OpenGL Environment Variable Settings" of the README.
Improved performance and responsiveness of windowed OpenGL applications running inside a Unity session.
Added support for OpenGL 4.3.
Added support for the "Backlight" RandR output property for configuring the brightness of some notebook internal panels.
Fixed a bug that prevented the Ubuntu Unity launcher panel from unhiding: https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+bug/1057000
Fixed a bug that caused nvidia-installer to sometimes attempt to write a log file in a nonexistent directory.
Fixed a bug that caused incorrect input transformation after resizing an NVIDIA X screen with xserver ABI 12 (xorg-server 1.12) or newer.
Fixed a bug that caused GLX to leak memory when Xinerama is enabled.

but with this new driver xrandr also shows a backlight range value from 0 - 100. but even when set to 100 the notebook display remains dark and the appropriate keys on the notebook keyboard do nothing.

so for me, it would be better, if this new support for the "Backlight" RandR output property will be removed....